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The Whole Animal
For fans of Souvankham Thammavongsa, Lynn Coady, and Lisa Moore comes a striking debut collection of short stories that explore bodies both human and animal: our fascination with their strange effluences, growths, and protrusions, and the dangerous ways we play with their power to inflict harm on ourselves and on others.
Throughout The Whole Animal, flawed characters wrestle with the complexities of relationships with partners, parents, children, and friends as they struggle to find identity, belonging, and autonomy. Bodies are divided, often elusive, even grotesque. In "Porcelain Legs," a pre-teen fixes on the long, thick hair growing from her mother's eyelid. In "Wolf-Boy Saturday," a linguist grasps for connection with a young boy whose negligent upbringing has left him unable to speak. In "Butter Buns," a college student sees his mother in a new light when she takes up bodybuilding. With strange juxtapositions, beguiling dark humour, and lurid imagery, The Whole Animal illuminates the everyday experiences of loneliness and loss, of self-alienation and self-discovery, that make us human. Advance Praise for The Whole AnimalIn one of the final stories of The Whole Animal, a character remarks, of a house full of possessions after her husband has passed away, "There's just so much." The reader sees only three: an antelope head, a cooler, and an electric carving knife. This is a perfect encapsulation of Chong's style, the writing always astute, deliberate, and keenly observed. Chong finds just the right details, whether the blank, glossy eyes of a stuffed antelope or the seemingly quiet moments on which a whole life turns–when a person is revealed to themselves, when a brush with cruelty embeds itself forever, when the world is a revelation–and lets them layer and build to devastating effect." These stories have a clarity that belies their depths. Corinna Chong's hallmark is a blend of simple and startling, gorgeous and grotesque, making each story unpredictable–and unforgettable. A powerful collection." These irresistible stories are so compellingly drawn you'll find yourself devouring them, one after the other, like chapters of a page-turning mystery novel. Corinna Chong's vivid, seamless style draws you in and leaves you wanting more." Indelible." Selected ReviewsWith all the careful attentiveness of a zookeeper, or a tutelary deity, Chong has nurtured each story in this collection until it stands as a gleaming example of its own particular species." (full review) These are the best kind of short stories—those that pose questions, ones the reader must pause after to ruminate on and to allow every grain of perfect sediment to settle before continuing to the next." Corinna Chong [...] is drawn to the disruptions of contemporary life and clearly unafraid of using the blunt language of her generation. The characters here speak with the voices of the present, each of them trying to make sense of the empty promises and real upsets that affect and confuse them. The result is a collection of thirteen ‘briefs’ — each operating with a kind of medical precision, probing the sores and scars of survival." (full review) Full of compelling characters and grotesque imagery, The Whole Animal is an exciting glimpse into the human psyche and the fine line that separates human and animal." Chong writes a beautifully crafted collection on the ethics of veganism, the trials of pregnancy, and the tribulations of girlhood, tied together by the concept of animalistic traits dispersed within human life. An overall excellent collection with images that will stay with the reader indefinitely." (full review) |